Abstract: Objective: To develop Family Caregiver-Nurse Collaboration Scale for elderly patients and to test its reliability and validity, in order to provide a effective evaluation tool for evaluating the level of collaboration between nurses and family caregivers. Methods: Based on the perspective of family caregivers of elderly patients and the tentative collaboration model, the primary scale was formed by literature review, semi-structured interview, Delphi method and preliminary survey. From April to September 2022, 594 family caregivers of elderly patients were selected for questionnaire survey to test the reliability and validity of the scale. Results: The final scale included 4 dimensions: collaboration conditions, decision-making participation, role activities, and collaboration results, with a total of 39 items. The item-level content validity index was 0.830-1.000, and the scale-level content validity index was 0.967. A total of 4 factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 79.424%. The results of confirmatory factor analysis met the adaptation criteria. Criterion validity was 0.727 (P<0.001). The Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.858, the retest reliability coefficient of the scale was 0.982, and the split-half reliability of the scale was 0.861. Conclusion: The Family Caregiver-Nurse Collaboration Scale for elderly patients has good reliability and validity, and can be used to evaluate the level of collaboration between nurses and family caregivers of elderly patients.

Key words: elderly patient; family caregiver; nurse; collaboration scale; reliability; validity